Twas All About the Ma'agal

My first week in my new, pretty much classified, environment was designed around the concept of a strange army acronym known as KaDaR, klitah derech regilah [absorption through the feet]. I think its a roundabout way of saying "endless crawling and related physical punishment in the desert hillsides.' But my Hebrew is shaky so don't quote me.

While I am not allowed to divulge our less than exciting drills, I can share the odder moments. The best two came when two songs were introduced into our training regimen. When the first, the theme song from Rocky, came over our officer's loudspeaker, everyone had to sprint to the top of the nearest hill and, atop the summit, cry out "ADRIAN!" The second song is a Passover classic, Echad Mi Yodea 'Who Knows One.' Each number would send us off on another mad dash, sometimes a sprint, other times crawling, rolling or the like. The holiday--and a rumored week long vacation--could not have seemed any farther away!